Powell v. Cole-Hersee Co.

Armstrong J.

Ferriter v. Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, 381 Mass. 507, 529-530 (1980), held that the spouse and children of an injured employee covered by workers’ compensation were entitled to maintain tort actions for loss of consortium against the employer or fellow employees when the injured employee was himself barred from suing by the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Law, G. L. c. 152, §§ 23 and 24, as then in effect. The Legislature responded in 1985 by enacting a statute that, in effect, abolished the consortium action for spouses and children of covered employees (St. 1985, c. 572, §…